Background
Lewis Changufu was born on October 5, 1927, at Kasama in Northern Province.
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Lewis Mutale Changufu
Edit ProfileEducation
Educated at Kasama, then at Ndola Government School. He continued his studies afterwards through the Lyceum Correspondence College.
Career
In January 1960 he was appointed chief national trustee and transport officer for the United National Independence Party. In 1963 he was sent to study public relations in the USA. At the general elections in January 1964 he became MP for Mansa and in the government formed on January 23, 1964, he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to Kaunda as Prime Minister. He was rushed off to Sionc in Kaunda’s home area of Chinsali when the Lumpa sect s uprising reached its peak in July and August, costing hundreds of lives. His firmness brought the surrender of Alice Lenshina on August 11, 1964.
At independence on October 24, 1964, he was promoted Minister of State for Defence and Security. In 1965 he entered the cabinet as Minister of Information and Postal Services. In this post he made an important contribution to the nation’s morale through his firrn handling of information policy during the critical early days of Rhodesia s UDI. On January 1, 1967, he was transferred to be Minister of Home Affairrs holding the post until August 1969 when he became Minister of Labour and Social Services.
Politics
As a clerk in government service, he kept his political activities secret for a period but he was eventually dismissed because of them in 1954. He turned to commerce and became manager of a printing firm. His work for the African National Congress resulted in his being made district chairman and then provincial president for the Central Province.
After the Kaunda-Nkumbula split he joined the Zambian African Congress launched by Kaunda at Broken Hill on October 24, 1958. The following year when Kaunda sensed that police raids and large-scale arrests were imminent, he sent Changufu out of the country to Dar es Salaam in the hope that Zambian nationalism would not be silenced. Yet Changufu did not escape arrest. He was detained at Chadiza in the Eastern Province for seven months.
Personality
Trouble-shooter in maintaining law and order right from his special mission in August 1964 to restore stability after the uprising by supporters of Alice Lenshina, the prophetess of the Lumpa Church. Close to President Kaunda, he has been entrusted with many social issues, including the curbing of party zealots from resorting to intimidation and violence in the recruitment of members.
As a leading nationalist since 1950 he has played an important role in strengthening party organisation, especially at election times, and he has been a successful fund raiser as deputy national treasurer. Not a political theorist nor an analyst of political options for the party’s future but a man with a down-to-earth approach to problems who has proved his administrative ability in several ministries.
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Born
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Nationality
Zambian